October 05, 2012

When my husband and I got married last September, we decided to wait and have a delayed honeymoon on our first anniversary. We wanted to have time to save and plan for our trip. At the time, we didn't yet know where we'd like to go, so having a year to make that decision was helpful.

We discussed lots of ideas, but for the type of vacation we wanted (relaxing, yet fun), we chose Las Vegas. We did a lot of internet searching, which I highly recommend, and found a great deal for airfare + 5 nights at the Mandalay Bay for the last week in September.

The Mandalay Bay is a beautiful hotel, as are many of the big resort/hotels on the strip. I especially loved the architectual details used at some of the big, themed hotels. Of few of my favorites below.

It's all so big, and over-the-top glitzy! We had such a fun time together, walking the strip, people watching, ducking into casinos or restaurants to escape the 93 degree heat, and then walking the strip some more.

I have more photos that I'll share soon, and maybe a little discussion about how to save on expenses in Las Vegas. We had the attitude going into our vacation that if there was something we wanted to do or see, we would do it, as it was vacation after all. But, we're both pretty frugal, and if we can do some research to save on some of those things, you can bet we will! We ended up spending almost $1000 less than what we had set aside for our vacation! And - we did everything we had planned on doing and had a blast!

April 29, 2009

If you ever make a visit to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, you must make a trip out to Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park. I recently made a couple of trips out there (it's about 20 minutes from my home in Port Angeles.)

On a Friday I drove out to deliver an order of products from my business that will be available for sale in the Gift Shop at Lake Crescent Lodge Resort. As you turn off of the Highway, you're greeted by hanging moss and huge ferns.

It was a sunny, blustery day and the lake had white caps on it. The setting here is breath-taking.

See what I mean?

Lake Crescent was formed by glacial activity. The ridges surrounding the lake are steep, and the center of the lake is as deep as 624 feet!

There are rooms in the Lodge and also quaint cabins for rent. I could have stayed out here for a week, but, sadly, I had to get back to work.

The gift shop opens May 8th, and I'm going to use the excuse that I need to get some photos of my products, and make another trip to the lake.

June 20, 2008

Well, not really Europe. Actually we took a road trip to Leavenworth, in Washington state. It's a really sweet little Bavarian-themed town, surrounded by Alpine-looking mountains.

You can see in the above photo that there was a lot of construction going on. The city is repaving the streets and sidewalks. One business owner we spoke to told us that the new sidewalks will be heated from underneath, to melt the snow and ice in the winter. How cool is that?! Leavenworth is a very popular winter as well as spring summer destination. And, don't forget fall! They do it up big for Oktoberfest!

We're
pretty laid-back vacationers. We don't need a lot of activities to keep us
happy. We both lead such busy lives, each running our own businesses, that when
we finally get away, we're pretty happy to just not have a schedule. I think a
perfect get away for us is waking up slow, then sitting somewhere sipping
coffee. Then maybe a little walk or hike. Next is lunch and then maybe some
shopping/browsing.

The self portrait above was taken in the 'Hat Shop'. If you take a trip to Leavenworth, the Hat Shop is a required stop. Really, it's so much fun! You'll find every kind of hat you could ever think of: Flamingo Hats, Hamburger Hats, King and Queen Hats, Furry Chicken (!) Hats, Viking and Pirate Hats, Rasta Hats, oh I could go on and on. There are hundreds, no, probably thousands of hats crammed into this little store. You walk in and immediately hear giggling and laughing throughout the store as groups of tourists try on the silly hats. Good times, good times.

If you
look closely at the above photo, you’ll see that they even have a Starbuck’s
Coffee. Yay! You can bet we spent some time there.

There
were so many nice little restaurants to choose from.

It was sunny while we were there, which made it
even more pleasant. We even managed to spend some time sitting around the hotel’s
outdoor pool. And even though we were gone only a few days, it felt like we
really got away and were able to relax and enjoy some time together.

[[Man, Typepad is really giving me some grief as I'm trying to post this, so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead here. I apologize if the photos and/or text look wonky!]]